Sadhna Tunnel: Need of the Hour

Recently, three civilian died on the Sadhna Top route, located at 10,269 feet, on Tuesday in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district in a snow blizzard . At least six civilians were caught in a snow blizzard at Khuni Nallah on the way to Sadhna Top, connecting the Tanghdar-Karnah belt with the Kashmir valley, on Monday night. Six people were on the way from Kupwara to Karnah on foot when they were caught in a snow storm. The locals terming the road as a death trap during winter.
All this gave rise to anger with scores of members from Sadhna tunnel coordination committee on Tuesday holding a protest here in Srinagar demanding construction of Sadhna tunnel connecting Karnah to the rest of Kashmir. The members were accompanied by the locals of Karnah who assembled at Press Colony here amid slogans in favour of their demand. The members of the tunnel coordination committee raised slogans: “Karnah ke saath na-insaafi na manzoor na manzoor.
It is worth mentioning sometime back a top Beacon official had stated : A detailed project report (DPR) for construction of 6.12 kilometer tunnel at Sadhna Top on Kupwara-Karnah road is being formulated. The tunnel will provide an all-weather access to border region of Karnah.
The 78-km long Kupwara-Karnah road, passing through high mountains, is maintained by Beacon. “We are preparing a DPR for the tunnel and once the study is completed, we will take up it with Union Government,” the official had said.
R & B has stated that the Tunnel is proposed on the road from Chowkibal-Chamkot. It takes more than an hour to complete this 14 km dangerous stretch, but once the tunnel is constructed it will reduce the travel time to just 15 minutes,
Socio Political activist Inaam Un Nabi while expressing his disappointment over the loss of three precious lives in a Snow blizzard at Khoni Nallah forests of North Kashmir Kupwara district demanded immediate construction of Sadhna tunnel .
while taking to micro blogging website Twitter he tweeted: “Any human lost is a loss to humanity. Sad to know 3 people have lost lives near Sadhna Top. The long pending & due demand for KARNAH TUNNEL has only been a political hogwash. High time there is a serious administrative approval and implementation. Cries on LOC anyways go unheard”.
While talking to the News Kashmir Inaam un Nabi stated : “ It is the need of hour to uplift neglected Karnah and Sadhna tunnel should be build so as to save precious lives . Those at helm need to ensure construction of all weather tunnel connecting Karnah so that precious lives and time is saved .Billions are spend on futile projects while nothing is being done to ease the journey of commuters at dangerous mountainous roads of Jammu and Kashmir.”
The need of the hour is to protect precious human lives and build a mega Sadhna Tunnel for Karnah residents.